1. Painted Faces Close Reading Handout
Responses are mostly referring to Golding’s diction.
REMINDER: Diction is word choice that has connotative meaning.
What is important about recognizing diction?
Diction informs the reader:
Tone (writer’s attitude)
Characterization, mood, and/or theme

2. Tone – the writer’s attitude toward the subject
Revealed through literary devices and rhetorical strategies
Diction (word choice with connotative meaning)
Detail (facts without interpretive meaning of the words)
Syntax (sentence structure)
Contrast (opposites)
Imagery (sensory details often with diction to create a scene)
Figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification)
Evidence comes from the text itself.
Consider the two tones on your paper.
What words and/or phrases support the tones?
What other devices, if any, reveal the tones?

3. Examples of Words that reveal tone
Planned
New face
His breathing troubled the mirror
Mask
Sinewy
Bloodthirsty snarling
Shame and self-consciousness
What do these examples suggest?

4. Incorporating Quotes into Your Sentence
Use ONLY the KEY words.
Always keep in mind your purpose.
Sample: Possible tones: eerie, fearful, disturbing
Displeased with his first attempt to conceal his face, Jack meticulously “plan[s] his new face,” calculating each mark and color so as to create a look with which he is satisfied.

5. Choose one quote.
Incorporate it into an example sentence.

6. Connect the example to the thesis.
Golding uses diction to create an eerie tone, signifying Jack’s immersion into savagery. Displeased with his first attempt to conceal his appearance, Jack meticulously “plan[s] his new face,” calculating each mark and color so as to create a look with which he is satisfied. Golding’s seemingly simple words stress the deliberation behind each motion Jack makes to recreate his image to his own specifications. The intensity mounts with each new movement that brings Jack closer to his goal. Golding’s diction suggests not only Jack’s intent to obscure his identity and, ultimately, reject any bond to civilization, but also Golding’s unnerving response to the possibility that such a situation would ever arise. … (More examples are needed.)

7. Journal #2 – Painted Faces
In a journal entry discuss how William Golding uses diction to present the dominant tone or two different but complimentary tones in the close reading passage from chapter 4 of Lord of the Flies.
Reminders:
Focus on only ONE literary device.
Write a clear, specific thesis.
Practice writing example sentences and connecting those examples to your thesis.